Friday – 09:45

A chill wind blew through the narrow lane where Ellen stood in front of a small shop. There was a slightly grubby printed sign above the door which read "Tourist Information Office".

Her brown, almond-shaped eyes had been drawn to colourful posters in the windows of the building boasted of various delights awaiting visitors to Marrenforth. Attractions on offer included adventure theme parks, historic castles and sporting activity centres. However, closer inspection had revealed that almost all of these were at least two hours' drive away from the town. The only 'attractions' actually in the vicinity of Marrenforth itself were a decommissioned 1970s nuclear bunker, the local fish farm and a recently excavated historic burial mound.

Ellen was sure that some people would have found those offerings interesting, but she'd rather chew her own arm off than spend an hour at any of them. Even if she had been keen enough to want more information, she'd have been out of luck. There was another sign taped to the door; this one was hand-written and said: 'Closed due to illness. Sorry'.

"Well done, girl," Ellen muttered to herself, shaking her head and with it her reddish-brown low hair bun. "You've managed to find it: the genuine, accept-no-substitutes, arse end of nowhere. How can a town of 50,000 people be so dull?" For a second she considered livening things up by swinging her shoulder bag at one of the windows, just to see if the town even had a police presence, but common sense won out over frustration.

She'd arrived in Marrenforth by train the previous night. Her first impressions of the place, formed while walking from the railway station to her hotel, had been distinctly underwhelming. What was probably once a quaint little town full of charm appeared to have been sacrificed to bland modernity in the 1960s and left untouched ever since. Instead of period architecture and a variety of interesting buildings, Marrenforth today was dominated by charmless office blocks in concrete and glass. The town centre was dominated by charity chops, fast-food outlets and the same chains of stores that you could find in any modern British town. Any distinctiveness and personality the place might once have had were now long gone.

She had at least hoped there might be some vaguely interesting places in the town for her to visit during a long weekend stay. Now she realised that thought had been wildly over-optimistic; the tourist office was proof that the town was mainly just a base for people making day trips elsewhere.

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Which wouldn't have mattered if things had gone according to plan.

Ellen and her boyfriend Brendan had booked the hotel room and the train tickets months ago. They'd intended it to be a pre-Christmas break together before the seasonal round of partying and family visits. The plan had been to spend the days exploring the town's attractions, and the nights having awesome sex. If they'd been together, the awfulness of the place would actually have been funny.

But Brendan wasn't with her. At some point after booking the trip, the two of them had begun arguing. Ellen still wasn't sure exactly how or when it had started, they just began irritating each other. Things had got progressively worse, crockery had been broken and last week they'd split up for good. Having paid for her half of the weekend, Ellen was determined to get something for her money and so had decided to make the trip anyway. Brendan certainly wasn't going to accompany her, so she'd be free to indulge herself and have fun. Hence her arrival on the late Thursday night train.

That, she now realised, had been a big mistake. This lifeless place would be no fun at all on her own.

No, she wouldn't bother staying the rest of the weekend. She'd spend the morning looking round the town, trying to find something at least slightly interesting to do. That would kill some time, as would lunch, then she'd catch a train back to London in the afternoon. It would cost her extra to change her ticket, but it would be worth it to get out of this morgue of a place before her weekend was totally wasted.

She turned her back on the tourist office and began walking along the street, away from the town centre. A little further down, she reached an opening that was signposted 'Marrenforth Town Park'. The sound of a young child's shrill laughter caught her attention, so she paused and looked in.

A short path led to a neatly cut expanse of grass about the size of a football pitch. At the back she could make out a large pond with seats along its edge. Near the entrance was a children's playground area with swings, a slide and a roundabout. A chubby woman with sandy hair sat on a wooden bench, wrapped up tightly against the cold. She was watching a young child in a white T-shirt who was running around the equipment and shouting happily as he chased pigeons. The three sides of the park away from the road were lined with evergreen trees and dense shrubs which partially shielded it from view of the surrounding buildings.

Marrenforth Town Park looked like a great place to sit and relax, but relaxing wasn't what Ellen wanted to do. Maybe if Brendan had been with her... but no. She wasn't going to sit on a park bench on her own, she'd find something else to do.

As she turned away, a movement in the distance caught Ellen's eye. Something was happening in the trees about halfway down the park. The bushes were shaking and she thought she could see flashes of what looked like naked limbs thrashing back and forth. In fact, she was sure that she could hear distant female squeals. The woman on the bench was looking around anxiously, presumably worried that the child might witness something 'inappropriate'.

The sounds from the trees became louder and Ellen was sure she could hear the man growling. The couple clearly liked it rough. Ellen smiled wistfully and thought about the weekend she had originally planned with Brendan before things went sour. Some good, hard sex would cheer her up right now. Although maybe not out in public like that, and definitely not in this weather.

Still, at least somebody in Marrenforth was having fun today.

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